The VW bug — 76 years later and they’re still out there.

The old air-cooled Volkswagen Bug — or Beetle, if you prefer — was launched just over 76 years ago and many of them are still on the road. The company was founded by Ferdinand Porsche (name sound familiar?) in Germany in 1937 and since then and 2003, when production was shut down, more than 21 million of these iconic cars were sold worldwide.

Having owned a 1966 Beetle (that was the year the engine went from 1200cc to 1300cc), I can attest to their faithful service, their antiquated handling, their miserly gas consumption, their innate danger to occupants (it’s just a gas tank and a spare tire between you and that oncoming truck) and their overall contribution to the car culture. You could fix them by the side of the road, as long as you had a supply of duct tape and a pair of pliers, and they benefited from one of the most innovative ad campaigns ever mounted by the auto industry: “Think Small.”

In the summer of 2003, Volkswagen, which was making the cars in Mexico, ended production of the air-cooled Beetle. But the shape of the Beetle was so familiar that VW quickly came out with a modern, water-cooled version and that, too, has been selling well ever since. But it ain’t the same as the old one.